Staff Reporter
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/ 23 April 1999

SA craft-makers at the Smithsonian

M&G reporter Relatively obscure craft-makers from rural areas and informal settlements have been chosen to exhibit in Washington, DC in June for the Smithsonian Institution’s folklife festival, which this year includes a focus on South Africa. About 100 participants, some barely known outside their own regions, will demonstrate a range of craft-making, from embroidering to […]

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/ 23 April 1999

What if they are innocent?

A decade after Lockerbie, the West has at last got its men: two Libyans who London and Washington say planted the bomb that killed 270 people. But the case is not that open-and- shut, says Russell Warren Howe More than 10 years after the fatal crash of a Pan Am airliner on the Scottish village […]

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/ 23 April 1999

Big moment for Big Voice Jack

Playing his own song in a huge American stadium is one of the highlights of Big Voice Jack life – and there’s a documentary film to prove it, writes Brendan Cooper Eighty thousand people can make a lot of noise, and when Dave Matthews leans in to his mic and says to the crowd, “Give […]

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/ 23 April 1999

Portal combat on the Net

Jack Schofield Three of the world’s best-known companies – Microsoft, America OnLine (AOL) and Yahoo! – are locked in a billion-dollar battle to give you something for nothing: a “portal”, or gateway to the Internet, where Web wanderers can start when they go online. Portals attract millions of users, and consequently lots of advertising. With […]

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/ 23 April 1999

Self-made – with others’ money

Robert Heller Twenty wealthy Americans have just made off with booty exceeding a whole year’s net profit for Merrill Lynch, the world’s largest securities firm. You don’t need the FBI to track down the suspects. They head the 20 top companies, from Walt Disney to General Electric. Their combined salaries, bonuses and long-term compensation (mostly […]

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/ 23 April 1999

From nice to nasty

Andrew Worsdale Movie of the week Money lust, capers gone wrong and innocent heroes caught up in crime are strong generic gimmicks in movies. Alfred Hitchcock excelled in the art of throwing innocent men into conspiratorial affairs. In North by Northwest he had Cary Grant as a light hearted advertising executive who’s abducted, framed and […]

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/ 23 April 1999

WOMAN JOURNO RELEASED

DETAINED journalist Maha Hassan Ali was released by security officials in Khartoum Wednesday afternoon on a personal bail by the chairman of the Sudanese Journalists Union, Najeeb Adam. Adam said he and a delegation of the union had approached “a ranking security official” and secured her release. Maha and two male journalists were arrested early […]

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/ 23 April 1999

The new wild West End

Lyn Gardner Last month a little-known theatre group called Frantic Assembly played Singapore’s Zouk Club, described by dance guru Judge Jules as “the best club on the planet”. When they last played London, in the informal surroundings of the BAC theatre, the crowd looked like the overspill from one of the capital’s trendier nightclubs. That […]

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/ 23 April 1999

The `other half’ gets talking

Ann Eveleth South Africa’s “other half” – the rural poor – will descend on the birthplace of the African National Congress this weekend to thrash out a new charter demanding their fair share of the economic pie. Delegates from rural communities across the country will meet at the national Rural Convention in Bloemfontein to draft […]

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/ 23 April 1999

Last shall come first

Sarah Ryle At last an economics professor has done something useful. He has worked out that punters who chose the six least popular numbers from the British National Lottery’s list of 49 stand to make an average weekly return of 11% on their stakes. The magic numbers – 36, 41, 46, 47, 48 and 49 […]